Norris starts fast in Zandvoort as F1 season resumes

Lando Norris set the pace in the opening practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in a foreboding show of pace.

Norris needed only one run on softs to set his best time of the session at 1m 10.278s with three purple sectors. Piastri was next to set his lap, but though he pinched the fastest first split, his lap fell away over the final two-thirds of the circuit to leave him almost half a second off the pace in a car that looked prone to excessive understeer.

A second attempt on used soft tires brought the Australian closer with an improved final sector, his final effort putting him 0.292s off his teammate’s pace.

The McLaren drivers were the only ones who looked in realistic contention to top the session in the dry. Lance Stroll came closest among the rest with a late lap on softs that put him 0.501s adrift. There was likely more in the lap for the Canadian, who had his first attempt at a flying lap spoiled by a slow-moving Yuki Tsunoda on the racing line. But Stroll also would have gained some time from setting his best lap much later in the session than the bulk of the field, capitalizing on track evolution on the sandy circuit.

Stroll's Aston Martin teammate, Fernando Alonso, followed him closely, just 0.062s adrift in fourth.

Alex Albon was fifth despite expecting his Williams team to struggle with the track configuration this weekend. He was 0.893s off the pace, though that was enough to keep ahead of Max Verstappen in the lead Red Bull Racing car.

Verstappen was the early pace-setter on mediums but couldn’t follow the field on the soft compound, leaving him 0.94s off the pace. He then ended his session beached in the run-off zone at Turn 1, Tarzan corner, in a bizarre incident after the checkered flag had flown.

The Dutchman had just executed a practice start when he locked up into the first corner. The mistake sent him sailing off the track, where his car got beached on the lip of a service road in the gravel trap. It was a similar trajectory George Russell had taken some minutes earlier, albeit without getting stuck, after having set a lap 1.108s off the pace.

Carlos Sainz also raked the stones, in his case at Turn 11, on his way to eighth and 1.18s behind the benchmark.

Gabriel Bortoleto led the way for Sauber in ninth at 1.2s adrift, keeping him 0.1s ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Racing Bulls teammates Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar were 11th and 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.

Ferrari slumped to 14th and 15th in a surprisingly uncompetitive session, with Charles Leclerc leading Lewis Hamilton by 0.009s but almost 1.7s slower than Norris’s McLaren.

“We are miles off,” Leclerc radioed despondently.

Yuki Tsunoda cut through the gravel at the chicane early in the hour but continued, though the Red Bull Racing driver was good for only 16th and 1.8s off the pace – 0.9s slower than teammate Verstappen.

Esteban Ocon was 17th for Haas ahead of Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was 20th after having set just six laps before beaching his car in the gravel in a painfully slow lock-up at Turn 9. While he avoided a collision with the barriers, he ran out of room to keep up his momentum, leaving him stuck and triggering a red flag to collect his stuck Mercedes.

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